Eskom defends its nuclear power ambition

ESKOM defended yesterday its – and the government’s – controversial ambitions for nuclear power generation.

“Recent global developments show that the world is increasingly moving towards nuclear power and that South Africa is on the correct path with its nuclear aspirations,” the parastatal said.

Current projections indicate that nuclear will provide more than 1 000 gigawatts (GW) of power by 2050 from its current level of 396GW.

This will be generated not only by existing users of nuclear power plants, but increasingly by new entrants finding the relatively cheaper financial and environmental cost of nuclear power attractive.

In order to generate this 1 000GW, there will be an expected increase in the number and size of nuclear power plants from the current 450 commercial nuclear reactors operating in 30 countries.

There are 65 nuclear power plants currently under construction. The aspiration was to increase the nuclear energy contribution in the energy mix from the current 11 percent to 25 percent of global power, Eskom said.

Construction is also taking place in the United Arab Emirates and in Belarus.

It is fundamental to note that at least 15 countries that do not have any nuclear power plant activities are starting to pursue nuclear power strategies including Poland, Turkey, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Jordan, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Namibia, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia and Libya.

New plants

“On the home front, nuclear energy currently accounts for more than 4 percent of South Africa’s power supply.

“To this extent, South Africa has committed to building new nuclear power plants in its bid to increasingly diversify its energy mix to lower carbon emissions as required under COP21 energy targets, and in order to generate cheaper electricity and thereby further stimulate economic growth.

“As such, South Africa targets generation of 9.6GW of nuclear power by 2030, which will be rolled out in chunks that can be sustainably afforded.”

In the interim, Eskom recently launched a programme to train 100 artisans, technicians and engineers as nuclear operators in preparation for the future build.

On average, it takes six years to train a nuclear reactor operator. Eskom is also committed to enrolling three to five nuclear engineering PhD candidates every year.